A typical arrangement of beams, bearings and slats in a reciprocating slat conveyor is disclosed by my U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870, granted Feb. 13, 1990, and entitled Reciprocating Floor Conveyor With Snap-On Floor Members. Longitudinal guide beams that support the bearings are designated 14 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870 (FIG. 1). The bearings are designated 122 (FIGS. 6-8). Special hold-down members are designated 80 (FIGS. 9-13). The bearings 122 are positioned on the guide beams 14 where the guide beams 14 cross over and are secured to transverse support beams 12. In this system, there are longitudinal spaces between the bearings 122 that are open and when the conveyor is used in a truck or trailer, water off the road can and will splash upwardly against the underneath sides of the conveyor slats in the open regions. There is a need to substantially close the open regions so as to guard against the upward splash of road water against the underneath sides of the conveyor slats. It is the principal object of this invention to address this need by the use of both old and new technology.
The old technology includes continuing the use of the transverse support beams, the longitudinal guide beams, the bearings and/or special hold-down members, and conventional conveyor slats. Examples of all these components are disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870. The present invention provides for use with these known components a unique splash guard bearing that both functions as a bearing and guards against the upward splash of road water against the underneath sides of the conveyor slats.
The subject invention is an improvement on or a variation of the system disclosed by U.S. Ser. No. 10/449,976, filed May 29, 2003, by Manfred W. Quaeck, and entitled Sealless Reciprocating Slat Conveyor Having Vertically Installable Components, and now owned by me.